Two mins, Sixteen secs

[anny84]

Hi,

sorry for odd question: why most of timed games are "two minutes, sixteen seconds" long? Is there a particular reason?

 

Thanks in advance!

Anny Carano

[+GroovyBee]

Deleted!

Edited October 13, 2010 by GroovyBee

[Nukey Shay]

I don't know...a bunch of reasons probably added up to using that for the length of a game.

 

Clicking a "jiffy" every 64th frame is easy to keep track of in terms of "bits" (64 is a power of 2...corresponding to a single bit's on/off state). Coupled with keeping another bit's positive/negative status means that it produces 128 x 64 frames, or approx. 2:15. This doesn't quite match up with the television's 60 jiffies/sec...so if a game ran too much longer, a user would eventually notice that any ingame clock (if displayed) isn't keeping track of seconds correctly. The advantage of relying on positive/negative status in the timer means that could double as the flag for inactive games...a game is in progress only when one state is true. In addition to that, using a single byte to keep track of either score means that you end up with a very short period before a score would roll over (at 9 if using the same byte for both players, or 99 if using seperate bytes)...so a short game time period is an advantage there.

[homerwannabee]

Wow, anny you have an extremely symmetrical face!

 

As far as the time thing goes, I have no idea.

[nofrills100]

Wow, anny you have an extremely symmetrical face!

 

As far as the time thing goes, I have no idea.

 

 

I think my face would be a 2.16

where as anny's would be a clean 2.00

[Nukey Shay]

Ah...but her hair is covering some of it. From that picture, she could have one eyebrow permenantly fixed in a Spock "puzzlement" expression

[nofrills100]

do you like my car anny - it's Italian

 

ok.... now I am just going for brownie points....

 

I'm married!!! what am I doing

 

 

[+Random Terrain]

Someone stop all flights to Italy from the United States before things get ugly.

[StanJr]

this is why girls don't come here. Shame on you, boys!

 

Anny,

 

Which games in particular? I am trying to think of timed games that are 2:16...?

[SlowCoder]

I'm sure that by her age she's aware the dangers of entering a gamer nerd forum. Besides, she could probably kick all of our nerd asses on a whim.

[Pioneer4x4]

I honestly don't understand the point of the thread. Plus for all we know it is some 46 year old overweight guy.

[Deteacher]

this is why girls don't come here. Shame on you, boys!

 

Anny,

 

Which games in particular? I am trying to think of timed games that are 2:16...?

 

Combat and Air Sea Battle games are 2:16 long. There might be others too. After 2:00, the scores start to blink, telling you that you're down to your last :16 of game time.

[SlowCoder]

I honestly don't understand the point of the thread. Plus for all we know it is some 46 year old overweight guy.

I see from your profile that you're 46. Alter ego?

[OldAtarian]

I honestly don't understand the point of the thread. Plus for all we know it is some 46 year old overweight guy.

 

Too true. I made the mistake once on another forum of addressing another forum member named "Andrea" as a she and was quickly informed that "Andrea" is a boy's name in Europe, it's pronounced On-DRAY-a instead of An-DREE-a.

Edited October 14, 2010 by OldAtarian

[Pioneer4x4]

this is why girls don't come here. Shame on you, boys!

 

Anny,

 

Which games in particular? I am trying to think of timed games that are 2:16...?

 

Combat and Air Sea Battle games are 2:16 long. There might be others too. After 2:00, the scores start to blink, telling you that you're down to your last :16 of game time.

AH, I get it, thanks!

[Pioneer4x4]

I see from your profile that you're 46. Alter ego?

But can you believe MY profile?

[OldAtarian]

It has me wondering if you couldn't do longer timers than 2:16 by handing control of the clock over to a new counter every time you reach a multiple of 2:16 and killing the old counter as soon as it loses it's accuracy all while seamlessly maintaining the clock on screen.

 

So you start with counter A maintaining the clock to 2:16 then starting a counter B to 4:32 then starting a counter C to 6:48, and so on starting over again at A when you run out of variables.

Edited October 14, 2010 by OldAtarian

[Nukey Shay]

Since the long "positive/negative" timer is seperate from the framecounter, you can just bump the positive/negative one when the framecounter rolls to zero instead of at every 64th. That produces 256 x 128 frames, or about 9 minutes. In Combat, the framecounter check is near the top of the binary (change AND #$3F to two NOP instructions).

[OldAtarian]

That would be a good programming challenge to see who can write the most accurate clock program. Anyone feel up to it?

Edited October 14, 2010 by OldAtarian

[+GroovyBee]

That would be a good programming challenge to see who can write the most accurate clock program. Anyone feel up to it?

 

No need :-

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/99473-accurate-2600-digital-clock-rom

[littleman jack]

Freeway goes for about 2.16 as well.

[anny84]

I don't know...a bunch of reasons probably added up to using that for the length of a game.

 

Clicking a "jiffy" every 64th frame is easy to keep track of in terms of "bits" (64 is a power of 2...corresponding to a single bit's on/off state). Coupled with keeping another bit's positive/negative status means that it produces 128 x 64 frames, or approx. 2:15. This doesn't quite match up with the television's 60 jiffies/sec...so if a game ran too much longer, a user would eventually notice that any ingame clock (if displayed) isn't keeping track of seconds correctly. The advantage of relying on positive/negative status in the timer means that could double as the flag for inactive games...a game is in progress only when one state is true. In addition to that, using a single byte to keep track of either score means that you end up with a very short period before a score would roll over (at 9 if using the same byte for both players, or 99 if using seperate bytes)...so a short game time period is an advantage there.

 

That's right, thanks. There's the reason all 2'16" games in Italy are 2'45" long. We in Italy have 50 j/s instead of 60.

To everyone: I'm 26... not so young. But thanks anyway

Thanks

[+Random Terrain]

To everyone: I'm 26... not so young. But thanks anyway

You're 26? Ewwww! That's ancient! I bet you have that old people smell and your bones pop and snap when you move. Gross!

[Pioneer4x4]

To everyone: I'm 26... not so young. But thanks anyway

You're 26? Ewwww! That's ancient! I bet you have that old people smell and your bones pop and snap when you move. Gross!

In Fahrenheit, that is almost 79!

[doyman]

Dog age?